Red flag for the Gulf of Maine: Water slowly changing color [View all]

[jpak]

Source: Portland Press Herald

The Gulf of Maine is changing colors – and the shift could have major implications for the gulf’s complex food chain.

Researchers at Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences in East Boothbay and the U.S. Geological Survey have been investigating a dramatic decline in overall productivity of plant and animal life in the Gulf of Maine. The research teams believe that increased precipitation during the past 80 years – including a string of historically wet years over the past decade – is dumping more of the tea-colored water common in Maine rivers into the gulf.

The addition of that darker water appears to be giving the gulf’s historically blue-green waters more of a yellowish tinge. In turn, the tiny phytoplankton that are the backbone of the food chain are finding it more difficult to compete for the sunlight they need to survive and thrive – a scenario that could worsen if the changing climate leads to higher precipitation in the region, as many climate models predict.

“Phytoplankton are the basis of the food web,” said William Balch, senior research scientist at Bigelow Labs. “These phytoplankton are food for the larvae of the fish that will be food on your plate in eight years.”

<more>

Read more: http://www.pressherald.com/2016/05/03/red-flag-for-the-gulf-of-maine-water-slowly-changing-color/